The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantu 256 pages

Cantu, who is Mexican on his mother’s side and speaks fluent Spanish, spent from 2008 to 2012 as an agent for the United States Border Patrol. During those four years, he spent more than half his time rounding up individuals who had crossed the border from Mexico to the United States illegally and placing them in a deportation center or discovering those who died from thirst, heat and starvation trying to get into this country. Cantu also heard horrific stories about how the drug cartel took care of those they thought were trying to escape their influence. Eventually the stress of his job made his life unbearable and he left it. Three years later he met and tried to help Jose an illegal immigrant deported back to Mexico while his wife and three sons remained in the United States.

Cantu writes a powerful story that provide no answers, only more questions, to the immigration problems we are facing.